There will be a week of strikes across the railways starting this coming Saturday (2nd Dec 2023), as train drivers who are members of the ASLEF union walk out.
Unlike previous strikes, which saw all train companies in England affected on the same day, the union is staggering the strikes, so different train companies are affected throughout the week.
In addition to the cascading one-day strikes, there will be an overtime ban across all train companies from 1st to 9th December, which may lead to short-notice cancellations
Train companies will operate as many trains as possible throughout the period, but there will be wide regional variations, with some operators running no services at all on strike days. Services that are running on strike days will start later and finish much earlier than usual – typically running between 7.30am and 6.30pm.
It is also likely that services on some lines will be affected on the evening before and morning after each strike because much of the rolling stock will not be in the right depots.
Strike days by train company:
| Avanti West Coast | Sunday 3rd December |
| C2C | Tuesday 5th December |
| Chiltern | Sunday 3rd December |
| CrossCountry | Thursday 7th December |
| East Midlands Railway | Saturday 2nd December |
| Gatwick Express | Wednesday 6th December |
| Great Northern | Sunday 3rd December |
| Greater Anglia | Tuesday 5th December |
| GWR | Thursday 7th December |
| LNER | Saturday 2nd December |
| London Northwestern | Sunday 3rd December |
| Northern | Friday 8th December |
| South Western Railway | Wednesday 6th December |
| Southeastern | Wednesday 6th December |
| Southern | Wednesday 6th December |
| Stansted express | Tuesday 5th December |
| Thameslink | Sunday 3rd December |
| TransPennine Express | Friday 8th December |
| West Midlands Trains | Sunday 3rd December |
Strike day impacts:
Saturday 2 December
East Midlands Railway
No trains will run.
LNER
LNER will run a reduced timetable between Edinburgh and London and Leeds and London
Sunday 3 December
Avanti West Coast
No trains will run.
Chiltern
No trains will run.
Great Northern
No trains will run.
Thameslink
No trains will run.
London Northwestern
No trains will run.
West Midlands Trains
No trains will run.
Tuesday 5 December
C2C
No trains will run.
Greater Anglia
A reduced service between Norwich and London Liverpool Street; Colchester and London Liverpool Street; and between Southend Victoria and London Liverpool Street.
First trains of the day start later and last trains finish earlier than normal.
No services running on other lines, including regional/branch lines
Stansted express
Reduced service
Wednesday 6 December
Gatwick Express
Shuttle service calling at London Victoria and Gatwick only
Southeastern
No trains will run.
Southern
Shuttle service calling at London Victoria and Gatwick only
South Western Railway
To be confirmed – but expect to run “an extremely limited service” on the day.
Thursday 7 December
CrossCountry
No trains will run.
GWR
Many parts of the GWR network will have no service at all and trains that are running will only be operating for a limited period during the day.
Friday 8 December
Northern
To be confirmed, but some Northern stations may be closed or have reduced hours due to limited staffing and services.
TransPennine Express
TransPennine Express says that it will operates no or very limited services on days affected by strike action.
Strike day ticketing arrangements
Customers with Advance, Anytime or Off-Peak tickets for travel between Saturday 2nd December – Friday 8th December can instead use their tickets any time between Friday 1st December up until Tuesday 12th December. The policy only applies to tickets purchased before the strikes were announced on 17th November.
If the Advance ticket is for a train that is scheduled for a strike day, and that service is not cancelled, delayed or rescheduled, but a customer prefers not to travel, they should contact their ticket retailer.
Customers with two Advance tickets (an outbound and a return), to be used as a return journey, may be able to get a fee-free refund or change of journey for any unused legs/tickets, if one (either) of the legs is scheduled for a strike day. Customers should check with their ticket retailer.
Passengers with season tickets (flexi, monthly or longer), who do not travel, can claim 100% compensation for the strike dates through Delay Repay.
Passengers can check on the National Rail Enquiries website or their rail operator’s website for further travel advice.
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